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The Business of being Helpful

I gain a lot from the help of others. I absorb a lot of experience and knowledge vicariously through other people. It’s a really great thing. Helping others is an important part of my life.

Why?

Because so many people have helped me along the way.

Example: today in my verilog programming course, I asked the person sitting next to me for some help. I couldn’t get my circuit to operate properly and I needed to provide a demo by the end of class. He was eager to help me troubleshoot the problem and even went out of his way to stay an hour after class to debug a problem I was having. This is help. This is someone who is not only passionate about the topic but also willing to help someone he’s just met for the first time. The amount of respect I have for people like this is very high. You could easily ignore a person and tell him you can’t help. It saves you time. It saves you the potential of impatience. It saves you from a lot of things. I didn’t get to demo my circuit to the processor. But that’s besides the point. The experience I had is much more valuable than a trivial demo.

I try to actively return favors to the people who have helped me. I’ve offered job openings to friends, free things, lunch, etc. However I can. And I try to help as many people as I can because I know what it feels like to be stuck or helpless. It’s a pretty sucky feeling.

So help people. It’s a business. A good business too if you play your chips right. Trust me.